The Maid

Chapter 28

"And sign right here, then you'll be done." The lady points at the last line on the paper. I take the pen and sign my signature. She takes the paper and my ID and goes into the back.

She returns a few minutes later. "Alright, your all good." She pushes a button allowing me to pass the small gate that was at the front of the center. I swing it open and walk in. Many elders sat around playing games; helping their memory. Others sat around talking and probably gossiping about something. Some were eating their meals and some just sat looking blankly at the people around them.

I walk down the hallway, passing more elders until I reach my destination. I knock on the light blue door lightly and wait for a response. "Come in," someone says. I push open the door and a nurse stands next to her bed. The nurse wipes her face and picks up her food. The nurse smiles at me and walks past with her trash. I walk into the room more.

She sat in her bed and gazed at the TV. She finally laid eyes on me when I approached the side of her bed. "Why, hello there. You must be the new nurse they were talking about." I paused for a moment. It was sad to sit and look at my own mother when she can't even remember who I was. "Um, no. It's me, Ariana, your daughter, Remember." I said. She stared at me blankly for a while before her eyes went wide. She remembers me. I sigh.

"Meu babê(my baby), it's been forever since I've heard or seen you." She grabs my face, holding me close, she looks into my eyes. She then opens my mouth and examines my teeth and the rest of my mouth. "What's wrong with you? Your different." She starts pulling and tugging on my face.

"Mom," I grunted, "I'm fine." I pull my face from out of her grasp. She glares at me for a while trying to search for the issue. My mom was always good at things like this. She always knew when I was going through something and her discerning soul could always figure it out even if I tried to hide it from her. "Ariana, now don't lie to me, now what is it? Is it work, friends, your fiancé."

I sigh as she goes through a long list of possible issues. "Mãe!"(Mom!) I cut in. She stops and looks at me, "I'm fine, nothing is wrong. Besides I didn't come here to talk about me and my problems, I came here for you." Mom smiles at me. She grabs my hand and pulls me into a hug. "I know," she whispers in my ear.

We end our long embrace and I grab a chair. I sit next to her and ask about her stay here and what she was up to. She told me story's about her stay. Even though she couldn't remember half the people or what they did, I listened to her. She would try to turn the subject towards me, but I would change it right back to her. We sat and talked some more until a knocks comes from the door and a nurse walks into the room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but visiting hours are over now." She says meekly. I looked down at my phone and see that it's 7 o'clock already. Wow time really does fly. I stood up and started to collect my things. My mom quickly asked the nurse if we could have a few more minutes to discuss a few things. The nurse abides and steps out for a moment. My mom signals for me to come close.

"Put your things down amor( love). I need you to listen carefully." I lay my items on the floor and kneel next to her bed. She strokes my head and smiles at me, but it soon falls. " filha,(daughter) you and I know that I'm going to die soon, and not long it's just going to be you and your sister," tears start forming in my eyes,"Listen I know you don't want to hear this, but I am and I want you to have something." My mom pulls a box out from under the side table. It was a fairly small box. The box was white and had small gold designs spread all across it. "Now be careful with it, its fragile. Don't open it in here. I want you to take it and do with what is in this box, okay?" I nod my head. Tears starts to stream down my face. "Don't cry honey," she wipes the tears from my face.